Epic Soundtracks

At the time, Epic Soundtracks' contributions to Swell Maps must have sounded utterly bizarre. Soundtracks-penned songs tended to consist of little more than disoriented piano or guitar wanderings taken down a shady path lined by atmospheric found sound. They owed much of their rhythmically repetitive structure to Erik Satie and contrasted sharply with brother Nikki Sudden's early ventures into Lo-Fi art pop. "Raining in My Room" and "Big Empty Field," though utterly abstract, somehow speak eloquently in a disjointed tongue of raw emotion. Soundtracks' solo works consist of three LPs and an incredible posthumous collection of outtakes and home recordings. He was always at his best when he kept his focus narrow and steered away from voluble rock elements. On Change My Life (1996), for instance, the tracks that stand out are the subdued "Sleepy City" and the rueful "Wild Child." Each note in these songs is saturated with the pain of some separation that will never heal. They'll remind you, perhaps, of the time you lost your grip on that prized balloon, and all you could do was watch teary-eyed while it drifted skyward, listing into the sun.